A dying man is realizing a life-long dream of playing in the World Series of Poker this summer, thanks to 2012 Main Event winner Greg Merson.
Merson initially didn’t want it to be known that he was offering to buy Kevin Roster, 36, from New Jersey, into the WSOP Main Event. But Roster, who is planning to die in a matter of months, wanted publicly to say thanks, and convinced Merson that doing so would help raise awareness about sarcoma, the rare form of cancer that is killing him.
Just want to give a big thank you beyond words to @GregMerson for agreeing to put me in the Main Event and helping to raise even more awareness for Sarcoma cancer. He wanted no PR for this at all but I think it’s a plus for awareness. #wsop2019 #wsop #sarcomawareness
— Kevin Racks (@KevinRacksPoker) June 9, 2019
A poker promoter and entrepreneur, Roster is currently working through his bucket list. Top of the pile is a summer of poker at the WSOP.
Greg Merson Helps WSOP Dream Come True
Merson has agreed to put Roster into the 2019 Main Event. For fronting the $10,000 buy-in, Merson is taking 1 percent.
As a longtime poker player — he played online full-time prior to Black Friday — Roster knows the WSOP is about more than just one tournament. He’s been in Las Vegas all summer, playing in lower buy-in events.
“Is there a little destiny waiting for me here?” Roster asked on Facebook. “Going to play like there is no tomorrow. I live every day that way when it’s true. The lesson is for all of us to learn to live that way.”
Roster, who is married with a 9-year-old son, has been chronicling his end-of-life journey on social media and his website, MySarcomaCancerStory.com.
He was diagnosed in 2017 with high grade undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma — a rare, malignant cancer of the soft tissue that grows undetected, and materializes in large tumors that can destroy other organs.
He’s already had one leg amputated as a result.
After seven events, Roster reports so far having more success betting on sports and blackjack than poker. Roster has been making the most of his time in Las Vegas, as the poker community seems touched by his story and enjoying getting to know him. In addition to Merson, Roster has gotten to play alongside one of his idols, Phil Hellmuth.
Both finished in the money in Event #31,$3,000 NLH 6-Handed.
What a day! ITM @ WSOP. got to meet and play a hand with one of my all-time poker heroes @phil_hellmuth & he wants to put me in a few events! This is like living a dream to me. Secretly had a hard time even holding it together. #wsop2019 #bucketlist #sarcomaawareness #thankful pic.twitter.com/jhoV8HwVG7
— Kevin Racks (@KevinRacksPoker) June 12, 2019
Kevin Roster Robbing Cancer of Its Prize
After the WSOP, Roster is headed back to his new home in California — not to play more poker, but to die. Roster says he doesn’t know how many more months he has to live, but doctors tell him to think about his remaining time in a matter of weeks.
For him, the best way to go will be to choose the time and place of his death. And in his native New Jersey, assisted death was recently legalized, but the earliest such services could become available would be August. That’s not enough time for Roster, so he moved to California where he can choose when to play his final hand.
“I want to rob cancer of its prize,” Roster said in an interview with Philadelphia’s WHYY. “Like, I already have one leg, and I can still do the best I can to get out. But I’m not willing to rot from the inside out. I’m not willing to gasp for air or asphyxiate on my own blood. Not to be graphic but these are some of the ways you can go.”
Roster says that while he recognizes that medically assisted death is controversial, he’s grateful for the opportunity it presents in states where it’s legal.
“It means freedom, the freedom to choose,” he said to KXTV in Sacramento. “I’m less afraid of the end now, because I know when it’s my time, when I become symptomatic and can’t enjoy life anymore or do things like play poker or go outside, then I don’t have to just wait, and be in pain, on tons of medication.”
Roster says it’s about dying the way he lived, in charge and on his own terms.
